When scientists talk about the cryosphere, they mean the places on Earth where water is in its solid form, frozen into ice or snow. Read more ...

Cryosphere Glossary

climate variability

(1) in the most general sense, the term climate variability denotes the inherent characteristic of climate which manifests itself in changes with time; the degree of climate variability can be described by the differences between long-term statistics of meteorological elements calculated for different periods, (in this sense, the measure of climate variability is the same as the measure of climate change) (2) the term climate variability is often used to denote deviations of climate statistics over a given period of time (such as a specific month, season or year) from the long-term climate statistics relating to the corresponding calendar period; (in this sense, climate variability is measured by those deviations, which are usually termed anomalies).